'Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2' Advance Tickets Still Available

Midnight, 10 p.m. Screenings, Marathons Scheduled

Advance tickets have been on sale for weeks for Thursday’s late-night debut of the final “Twilight” movie, “Breaking Dawn 2,” and managers of local theaters report that only two local late-night screenings have sold out so far.

But rather than suggest that the popularity of the film series is down, one theater manager suggested that ticket buyers are confident that they will be able to get tickets at the last minute.

“The same thing happened for ‘The Avengers.’ There wasn’t as much [advance] demand as we thought, but a lot of people just showed up for it,” said Kyle Kernan, manager of Rave Buckland in Manchester. “It all comes down to that night.”

David Kontner of Rave Enfield agrees. “I think we’ll sell the whole theater, as long as people keep showing up.”

Most area theaters have some digital screens, and some are all digital, such as Rave Buckland, Rave Berlin, Rave Enfield, AMC Loews Plainville, Digiplex Bloomfield and, as of last month, R/C Middletown. With digital screens, adding screens showing the same movie is easy, once other screens have sold out.

“Die-hard fans will buy tickets in advance, especially if they want to reserve their seat, which we offer for a slightly higher charge,” said Kernan. Other fans, he said, know that the chances of getting a seat are good.

The manager at AMC Loews Plainville, who would not give his name, would not give specific advance sale figures for that theater, but did say one screening sold out. “We have it on so many screens,” said the manager of that theater, which has 20 screens. “We are putting it on 13 screens already, and we can put it on more, just not on the IMAX screen, because it’s not an IMAX movie.”

The other sold-out screening is at 12-screen R/C Middletown. Three hundred tickets have sold, but “there is plenty of capacity left,” said David Phillips, theater operations director of R/C Theaters.

The manager of Rave Berlin said the theater had no sellouts, but he anticipates that “on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, they’ll start selling like crazy.” He added that walk-ups always outnumber advance sales, even for the late shows.

Since the first “Twilight” movie was released in 2008, the series has raked in more than $1 billion in the United States, and almost $2.5 billion worldwide.

Sergio Donis of Bow Tie Hartford said that theater has “only sold a few so far.” At Rave Southington, 73 tickets had been pre-sold by Monday. Tim Keefner of Digiplex Bloomfield would only say advance sales are “doing pretty well.” Enfield would report only that they “have plenty of seats left.”

Kernan said the theater had sold a few dozen tickets to a midnight screening, and the same number for a 10 p.m. screening.

Studios customarily release movies on Friday, or Wednesday on holiday weekends. Some big films now have 10 p.m. Thursday screenings. “We had a 10 for ‘Taken 2,’ for ‘Alex Cross.’ We had a 9 p.m. for ‘Paranormal Activity 4’,” said the manager at AMC Loews Plainville. “In the last couple of months they have become more prevalent.”

Bill Flood of Rave Southington said the 10 p.m. screening is geared toward a younger crowd than the midnight crowd. “It’s for kids who are — quote unquote — not supposed to be out that late,” Flood said.

To complement the opening of the last “Twilight” movie, several theaters in the area are holding marathons of all the “Twilight” movies on that Thursday. The back-to-back screenings of “Twilight,” “New Moon,” “Eclipse,” “Breaking Dawn Part 1” and “Breaking Dawn Part 2,” more than 10 hours total, begins at 11:30 a.m. at select area cinemas (for times check www.courant.com/movies ).

As for whether school-aged “Twi-hards” will be able to go to the marathon, Flood laughs. “I guess we’re doing it for college students, if they come home,” he said. “Or a die-hard fan will skip school.”